Through numerous changes in
imperial leadership, all Chinese monarchs viewed their immense
population as members of one family. The people in turn revered
each emperor as the "Son of Heaven" and believed
that Heaven could bestow this title (and its divine authority)
onto any mortal being. Thus, the founding of new dynasties
was accepted by the Chinese people and provided legitimacy
to successful revolutionaries.

For 50 years during the 20th
century, the people of China experienced violent political
upheaval. China evolved from an all-powerful monarchy through
a succession of quasi-democracies to a country ruled by the
Communist Party. Yet even under the decades of Mao Zedong's
leadership, Mao played the same fatherly yet godlike role
as the ancient imperial emperors. Today under the present
regime, the Chinese version of communism is as much a form
of nationalism and unity as it is of socialism.

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